Emma in Wonderland
by karindalynn
Summary: Future Emma falls back in time, in wonderland, and has Past Hook help her try to get back to her own time, but he struggles to be helpful (set in the short period Killian was in Wonderland with Cora) I also have a Sequel Until We Meet Again
1. Chapter 1

_**The beginning** _

Emma had not meant to make the journey alone. They had talked about it, Regina, Killian, and David, discussed the plan to one day get to Wonderland, to get the only item missing necessary for Regina and her to complete a spell necessary to open a permanent portal between Storybrooke and her parents castle. However magic beans, let alone two to get there and back were difficult to find, and no one wanted a new curse.

The concept had been debated at length, the merits of such a permanent portal, allowing people to settle as they wish between the two worlds and the risk of maintaining an open portal between universes against any other unknown adversaries.

But Emma knew her parents longed for it. Longed to re-establish their kingdom with their son, while at the same time being able to see and be part of Emma's and her family's life if they remained to run and keep Storybrooke safe from the other end. Snow would often look into nothing, her eyes going wistful and Emma would know, know deeply exactly what was missing for them to make their happiness complete. Emma longed to give them that. To bring them their full happy ending.

So when Emma encountered the White Rabbit one day and recognized him from stories she had only a minute to decide to go with him through the portal. He was late for a very important date, and there was no time to get the others. There was not time for reason or logic or planning.

So she texted Killian where she was going... And that's how Emma disappeared into Wonderland. Of course, she knew where she was going, but the rabbit forgot to include the when.

If only she had thought of an exit plan.

**Emma in Wonderland**

It was fairly wonderful, Emma thought, wandering the path, staring at the brightly coloured flowers and trees enveloping her. Like bits of coloured bugs, almost like butterflies fluttered around her, changing colours in sync from blue, to aqua to yellow to orange. She felt hypnotized almost from the strange beauty around her.

The air smelled different, not the forest smell of the enchanted forest or the forests circling Storybrooke, but rather a spicier, more fragrant scent.

Emma really should have thought of a plan first. Emma thought Killian was the impulsive one, and here she was jumping through a portal with a Rabbit that just took off on her, in a world she had never been to before, once again alone.

It surprised her how uncomfortable that felt. After a lifetime of finding security in depending on, and being on her own, suddenly after only a few years the simple act of being alone again, even if just physically and not emotionally felt, strange and foreign.

They were going to be worried sick about Emma. It had been months since the last "incident" of any kind and everyone was already on edge, not trusting the peacefulness of it all. She sighed, thinking about how upset her parents, Henry and Killian where going to be at her for this rash decision. She'd been with the pirate too long and caught his impulsiveness.

As she trudged along, without a plan, she suddenly heard a party moving towards her through the trees.

"_Soldiers_" She thought to herself, hiding carefully in the bushes? or whatever the strange plant was, as she waited for the group to pass.

Through the woods they came, obviously a military or guard of some sort. Given that Emma had been working on her magic, trying to embrace it with Elsa, she was not worried, more curious about the situation, looking for clues as to where, and even when in Wonderland the rabbit had deposited her.

She didn't even know where she was, let alone where the blue mushroom was, but was grossly aware that the longer she was away from Storybooke, the more upset her family would be. She would have to get back to them soon, or Killian would do something equally stupid and try to come after her. And they didn't need them both at risk in Wonderland. Killian didn't have her magic and was far to reckless when it came to trying to rescue her. Lost in thought, she shuffled awkwardly changing her position. Her foot caught on some type of insect nest on the ground and a swam of bugs, reminiscent but not quite bees spiralled around her. They swarmed at her, looking dangerous. Emma ran straight into the path of the soldiers, more concerned about the insects to remember the risk that the soldiers presented.

Emma and the soldiers stated at each other in shock for a moment, neither of them moving, the pause hanging over the forest. Then suddenly a soldier drew a sword and started towards Emma, and the battle began in earnest.

Emma's magic had grown more powerful, to the extent that she could toss the soldiers away from her and knocking their heads together. She was making fast work of the warriors, when a carriage in the middle of the group suddenly flew open and none other than Cora emerged, her own magic raging out at Emma, in angry streaks, that Emma had to focus to block and toss back against her remaining military. "_Cora" _ She cried in surprise. "_Your dead"_ She was holding her own against Cora, she thought happily, almost enjoying the battle when she was distracted by another member departing from the carriage.

"_Well what do we have here Cora_?" A familiar voice crooned, amused at the show of strength against the Queen of Hearts. Emma spun in shock to turn to him , happily almost relieved at the sound of his voice that she forgot, totally forgot the context of the situation. "_Killian"_ She cried happily, smiling at him, a bright relieved smile. Hook actually stepped back at the sight of it, almost shocked at the light in the smile, or at least his reaction to this. He watched warily as the brightness of the smile lost its spark as the wheels in her head appeared to be turning, to realizing something..

"_I'm sorry do we know each other love_?" Hook stated, sword drawn moving towards her.

"_No, I guess not_" Emma said her eyes still not off him, panicked. Cora was alive and Killian was, well... Hook. When was she? She looked at Hook with a face showing all of the sorrow, worry and despair she suddenly felt. She had only been here a few hours and she was already feeling the loss of home. She sighed, distracted as she though about Killian and her parents at home, and tried to place where she was in the timeline, that Hook was here, with Cora in Wonderland...

She had only paused for really less than a minute, but it was all Cora needed to gain advantage. While Emma was distracted with Hook, she quietly used her magic to raise a large rock from behind Emma and propelled it forward, knocking her in the head, and unconscious.

**Hook**

Hook felt his heart panic at the sight of the strange woman hit the ground, and found himself hurrying towards her to check for a pulse. She was alive, but injured, a small amount of blood flowing from her head wound. He wanted to smooth the hair from her face, to treat the wound, to care for her.

But he was aware of Cora's questioning eyes on him, aware that his body and his reaction to her had already betrayed the strange connection he had felt with her, when she had smiled at him, warming him inside with her light. Or the sorrow he had felt, suddenly when the eyes had lost their brightness and turned to despair.

Who the hell was she? He thought to himself.

"_Who the hell is she?"_ Cora roared at him, questioning. "_She seemed to know you_?" Cora questioned.

"_She seemed to know you as well..." _Hook countered, steeling himself to outwardly appear as casual and uninterested as possible. He looked down at her trying to school his features into a look of contempt, or disinterest, all the while his heart racing at the sight of her, and the remaining fingers of his hand itching to reach out and help her. He walked past her dismissively, trying desperately not to show Cora any what had suddenly bloomed to life within him.

The way she had looked at him at first, he thought._ Love, _something deep inside him whispered but his brain rejected it._ Ridiculous._

"_Let's tie her up"_ He said, starting the task, deliberately demonstrating a rough carelessness with her he did not feel inside. He felt something strange just looking at her building within in him, an emotion long suppressed. _Hope. _Until suddenly he noticed it on the appropriate finger, a simple elegant wedding band. And the hope was lost, as fleeting as it had been, as he tossed the woman in the back of the wagon, to continue on with Cora on the journey.


	2. Chapter 2

**Emma **

Emma awoke slowly, her head throbbing lying in a cold, wet damp ground. She looked around to find herself in a dark musty dungeon, steel bars and rats feces and everything. _Sigh._ This was not her first time in a metal prison, and Emma felt more resignation, than fear. She picked herself off the floor rubbing her wrists absently at the raw red marks where clearly someone had tied her prior to dumping her in this rotten hole. She was hungry, cold, wet, annoyed, thrust back in time and alone. She smirked, finding the irony that technically, she was likely locked in this prison by a man she trusted, loved, although she could hardly fault Killian for Past!Hook's behaviour. And she wasn't pregnant this time... as far as she knew. She suddenly longed for bologna and giggled.

A movement occurred against the back wall of the dungeon, and Hook separated himself from the wall, advancing towards the steel bars. Aww... memories, Emma thought to herself again, giggling softly, reacting inappropriately with humour rather than the fear or at least concern she knew she ought to have at what could be a dangerous situation. She now just _believed_ she would get out of any bad scrape. She looked him up and down assessing. It had been along while since she had seen Killian in his Hook clothes, let alone the red vest, and she warmed at how good he, or at least Past!Hook she amended looked in it. She glanced at him up and down from head to toe, appreciating the old familiar view, taking her time with it, deliberately obvious. She let her thoughts get a little distracted by a rush of desire that inadvertently swept through her, cause she knew, knew just how good it _ALWAYS_ was between them.

"_I am devilishly handsome, don't you think?"_ He purred at her, but there was an underlying dangerous tone to it, it was colder than she was used to and she shivered at the ice in his voice, looking right into the dangerous glint of those bright blue eyes of his.

"_Yes_" She said, but challengingly, tackling him head on, putting him off guard with her straight, honest and yet somehow equally cold, or at least cooling answer. She shook off the initial heat of attraction, reminding herself that this was not Killian, this was not her husband. And recalling how painfully far this man had to go to get to his future self. It was a long hard go from beanstalk to marriage, she thought. A racy and rather inappropriate moment of there courtship suddenly flashed through her head, but such fun!" and she giggled again, despite herself.

She just couldn't seem to take the situation seriously. She really needed to get it together. She contemplated the bars and her new stronger magically abilities...

"_They are enchanted love... I would not do that if I were you" _Hook warned as if reading her mind. He cocked his head sideways contemplating her, trying to read her with those penetrating blue eyes of hers.

"_If you called the Queen of Hearts by her name Cora, and me Killian, I assume that you are from the Enchanted Forest_? He questioned, annoyed as she seemed to contemplate that and smile, again in misplaced amusement.

"_Technically I WAS born there_"

_"Well I think that rock hit you on the head too hard .If you know Cora there should be fear and not humour in your eyes right now." "Or are you simply daft?"_

_"Well I did just agree you were devishly handsome, so clearly my mental health is question"_

"_Speaking of questions, I would start talking quick about who you really are and why you are here before Cora gets here_..." He wiggled his eyebrows _"I am much more forgiving in the right circumstances?..._

"_Swan, Emma Swan_" Emma said advancing now as close as she could to the jail cell, determined to try to manipulate him into helping her, the easiest way possible "_Hmm, lets say you get me out of here"_ pausing to lick her lips suggestively, "_and I will** stroke** that ego of yours a little more and make it up to you_"She suddenly laid it on him, full stop and strong and hard as she had reaching through and stroking the hook suggestively. She smiled as she saw Hook clearly react to her and struggle to remain in control of the conversation.

"_Tisk tisk"_ Hook cautioned, glancing meaningfully at the wedding ring on Emma's finger. " _Aren't you a married woman?" "What about your husband," _Yet despite his words he drew into, moving closer subconsciously, his warm breathe fanning her face, his eyes warming, pulled in despite himself by her seduction.

"_I thought you liked them married" _Emma said, and then winced almost immediately at the words meant lightly but with an obvious edge. His eyes snapped darker and she might as well thrown a bucket of ice on his ardour. He backed away from the cage, but his eyes never left her. They were bright and somehow hurt and dangerous at the same time.

"_And what do you know about that?' _

**Hook**

"_I thought you liked them married" _the vixen said, and Hook might have been able to handle it, assumed they were playful or innocent until she winced at them once they were out of her mouth. HE saw the flash of regret play across her face, and a glimpse of sorrow for him and a million other things all that screamed a deeper knowledge that this woman could possibly have. Hooks heart started to race and he cooled to her, for protection. Tried to close off his feelings the best he could. Whoever this woman was, she was dangerous he thought. She KNEW him, was connected to him somehow. He tried to calm his racing emotions, the rush he had felt of attraction... of something more elusive and deeper when she flirted with him and calculate as calmly as he could who this MARRIED woman was before him. Married, as belonging to another. Married. He kept repeating to himself as if that would somehow matter. He certainly did not want to do that again... and yet...

"_And what do you know about that?' _

_ "Everything" _She looked at him, bright and clear. A current of something, maybe understanding flowed between them, a butterfly feeling of something ... meaningful.

"_How_?"

_"We have met before"_

_"When?"_

_"Which time?"_

_"The first time?"_

_"Which time?"_

_"There was more than one first time?_

_"Well this is another first time, for you anyways..." _ _We are VERY forgetful..."_

"_Oh, I'd remember you love?"_

_"But you don't?"_

_"So if we met before, why don't I remember?_ "

"_Too much rum.."_

"_Hmph..." "I can handle my rum love..."_

_"Not THAT much rum, and there might have been a blow to the head"_

_"From you?"_

_"No, my husband"_

_"Jealous man... tisk tisk.."_

_"Only for you, and in fairness I was kissing you at the time..." _

_"Couldn't resist?"_

_"Distracting you... it was the easiest way..."I think we both know I'm your type..."_

She smiled mischievously obviously enjoying some private joke or image. She licked her lips without thought and he stared at those lips for a moment mesmerized.

"_What happened another time we met" _ Hook said, his throat thick with some emotion

_"I held a knife to your throat and tied you to a tree" "Whistled for the ogres to come eat you"_

"_What about another time?"_

_"I handcuffed you to a park bench and had you arrested for trying to kiss me"_

"_Handcuffs?"_

"_They have shown up more than once in our history..."_

"_Have I suffered any more abuse at your hands love?"_

She just laughed at him, her eyes bright. "_I abandoned you on a beanstalk, knocked you unconscious a few times... but in fairness this is not the first converstation I have had with you from this side of a jail cell either..." _

They were both so engaged in their banter, that neither of them noticed the quiet entrance of Cora into the room.


	3. Chapter 3

**Emma**

Emma sensed her before she actual saw or heard her, as Cora entered the room. She disentangled suddenly from a spirited conversation she was enjoying far too much, and looked directly at Cora. She was dressed dramatically, theatrically in a big heart dress. Outwardly Hook smiled at Cora suddenly schooling his body to look hostile, indifferent and bored but a slight twitch in his being and Emma knowing his tells so well betrayed to her that he was not expecting Cora's entrance any more than she was.

"_Well well" "what do we have here?" _Cora asked, advancing on them, the smiling look in her eye foreboding. All misplaced humour that Emma had fled her system. Hook she could handle. Cora would kill her for fun. Hmmm... Cora would kill her for fun...

"_Hello Cora_" Hook greeted, but he was not even aware that without even thinking he moved his body protectively between Emma and Cora. The glint in Cora's eye intensified.

"_What are you doing here Hook? I don't recall you getting my permission to interrogate the witness_" She waived her hand and using magic pulled out the key to the cell from Hook's pocket. It hit the floor with a loud thud.

Emma stared at it shocked. Even she did not expect he _already_ would have come here to help her escape but that obviously had always been his intention. He just had wanted to get her to work for it a bit, to see what she would offer, Emma thought.

"_Well I wasn't going to let her out" "I was just going to let myself in" _And Emma knew of course he was lying.

"_He was threatening to take my heart_" Emma piped up. "_To use it for me to tell him all I know, and then of course to use it to use me..."_ Emma didn't even try to sound frightened or scared, it wasn't her style and Cora would read the falseness in it. "_He forgets my magic has a bite_" "_To afraid to face the sorceress.._

_"I am not afraid" "And I Am the Queen of Hearts..." _

Cora flew the door open with her magic and entered the cell, eyeing Emma, inviting her to commence the show of strength, but keeping her body positioned so that Emma could not get past her out of the cell. A look passed between Hook and Emma, and it was enough for Hook to get the message... if she could get out of the cell, he needed to close that door _fast_. Emma was smart enough to feel Hooks hesitation to take a side, but she had no doubts he would make the right decision as long as she was the winning half. The pirate in him was carefully trying to sit on the fence until the outcome was more foreseeable. But his eyes were on her, in a certain way. He may not have fully admitted it to himself even, but Emma knew that heart of his would override the head if needed.

Cora made the first strike, using her magic to throw a fireball at Emma and the battle began in earnest. The magic could not penetrate the cell and Hook was safe on his side. Emma was fighting but only half heartedly. She let herself take a blow from Cora to think she had the edge, and slumped to the floor, a little over dramatically. The pirate had a quick but telling intake of breath. She made eye contact with him, warning him to stay out of it..

Cora was pissed. Furious, an angry ball of rage. Emma's magic had damaged her a little in the battle and she did not enjoy the competition of an equal. Any thoughts of caring who the woman was or why she was there went out the window as a blind storm crossed Cora's features and her face contorted.

"_I am going to crush your heart"_

Emma felt the pain as Cora reached into her chest and let her fingers grab around her heart. Then she let it out of her, every pore, radiating the white magic, now more powerful, stronger and far more under control then it had ever been the first time Cora had tried that little stunt. Cora flew back against the wall, unconscious. Emma dusted herself off, laughed as she watched Hook struggle with the mixture of horror of what he thought was going to happen to her and admiration and swung the jail cell shut behind her securing Cora safely inside.

"_Coming_?" Emma questioned to the pirate

"_You ruined my dashing rescue"_ Hook complained.

_"I told you this before, the only person that saves me is me_"


	4. Chapter 4

Emma turned and started walking out of the area, when it occurred to her she had no idea where they were or what other dangers would occur on the other side. She was making a mess of the timeline, a mess she would have to fix before heading back to her world, her time, and she needed to formulate a plan, a quiet place where they were unlikely to be seen... She turned to look at Hook, who was blinking his eyes as trying to process what had just happened.

"_Where is your bedchamber?"_

_"Well its about bloody time"_ Hook arched his eyebrow and batted those eyes of his at her suggestively.

_"You couldn't handle it"_ Emma said rolling his eyes at him "_And neither could I" _She added herself beating him to the punch.

It knew exactly what he could do to her and her body _wanted._

Hook of course understood none of this, but he did understand the mutual desire that was coursing between them. He reached out and slid the flat of his palm down her hip slowly, hardly the most aggressive action and watched without taking his eyes off her at the slight shiver that passed though her body at the physical contact.

She stepped away fast and he immediately felt the loss of her nearness. She held her hands up between them, as a shield, and her eyes looked panicked for a second. She just faced down Cora with less emotion than his single touch caused to flash through those green eyes.

"_Back off Hook" _

_"I am finding myself less and less concerned about this husband of yours love..." _Hook purred, but did not advance any further.

It occurred to Emma that the joke was over and she should tell him. But right now, it seemed like a necessary illusion, and excuse to maintain some needed physical and emotional distance between them. She did not want to cheat on Killian, and she could easily let herself make excuses that she couldn't cheat with her own husband, but it wasn't really him, not yet anyways and she knew that Killian would not want for it to occur and she needed to respect that. She didn't think it was cheating, but Killian would not like it and she wanted to respect that for him. God damn red vest. Stupid face. It would be soooooo much fun. Sigh.

And if Hook understood that her future husband was actually him, he would not see it as Killian would. Killian would be looking back to a version of himself he was not proud of. Hook wouldn't have the same feeling looking forward. He was still way too much pirate still, and would definitely try more confidently to plunder. Emma could not risk that because she did not know if she would be able to resist if he came at her full stop. Her heart was already racing stupidly and he was now just grinning at her, watching without understanding her thoughts the conflicting emotions dance across her face.

_"Hook your bedchamber" _Emma demanded trying to sound stern and then winced at the suggestiveness of the words.

"_AS you wish my lady" _the pirate said, leading Emma through the belly of the castle. When they came upon any other members of the castle, she simply held her hands behind her back and tried to look like his prisoner.

**Hook**

It took Hook the whole walk with her to his bedroom to try to get his um, hormones under control. When he had reached out and touched her and saw her subtle but real reaction, he felt desire that he did not recall ever feeling before slam into him, as well as something deeper. He watched the conflict play out over her features, savouring it because it was evidence that husband or no husband there was something powerful between them, and she felt it to, which was enough for Hook to hope. Hope.

His room was Spartan at best and she crossed over to his bed sitting down on it, cross legged and signaling at him with her hands to maintain a distance. She was so beautiful, he thought, and so powerful. She had defeated Cora, something he knew he could not have done, easily. She was utterly amazing and Hook felt like everything else but her, just her now existed for him. With her on the bed and image flash though his mind suddenly, but it was not the naughty one he would have expected of himself, but something surprisingly foreign and sweet. Of them simply stretched out together, him feeling that silky blond hair of hers while she told him her secrets.

Holy shit, he thought, he was done for, and he just met the bloody woman.

_"There are three parts to the plan" "One- I need to get the blue mushroom, two- we need to find the white rabbit and lastly, three- I need to find or make a memory portion to take away yours and Cora's memories of me so as not to endanger the time line since I am from the future"_

"_I know where to find the white rabbit" and Cora has a full spell room her, by her rooms" _Hook said, leaving out that he happened to know also exactly where the blue mushroom was as well. In a simple silver box on the shelf in Cora's spell room. He knew this only as she had planned to use it as a back up if necessary to open a portal to get back to her daughter, but it had become unnecessary with Jefferson's hat. They were literally supposed to leave later today to start there mutual plans towards revenge. Hook was no longer that interested. He would tramp all over Wonderland with this woman looking for a blue mushroom they would never find.

She clearly did not know him as well as she thought if she thought he would drink a portion to forget her.

He wasn't going back.

Emma looked at him deeply as she was reading his mind.

"_You need to drink the portion when it is time Hook"_

_"No."_

_"You will put the entire future, including your own in jeopardy"_

_"I have no future, I have only my revenge... then nothingness... my life will be empty, so what do I care of such a future?"_

_"If you understood you'd care Hook"_

_"Why do I skin myself the crocodile? _

"_Almost, you come real close with a healthy dose of dreamshade"_

"_How does he survive dreamshade?"_

_"Baelfire and I get him back, and my mother saved his life my taking the life of another" Its a long story..."_

Hook was surprised not how angry he felt at this, but rather how almost indifferent.

"_And who is worse and more deserving of death than the crocodile? _But that was not where his thoughts were_. _He was watching her carefully, as she had said the word Baelfire in a certain way...

_"Cora."_

_"And you helped save my enemy?_

_"He is my son's grandfather"_

And Hook immediately understood that connection and took the leap in logic, that Baelfire was the husband. Baelfire. Goddamnit, but the one person he would not want to try to deliberately hurt.

_'"Are you going to drink the portion Hook?"_

"_Yes'_

Hook lied, and he could tell that Emma knew it.


	5. Chapter 5

HOOK

_"I am assuming that Cora's spell chamber would be private? _Emma asked, eager to change locations and start working on the tasks to get her home.

Hook was still reeling at the thought of Baelfire as the husband. He nodded, distracted, letting the memories of Baelfire as a child dance through his head. His quest for revenge had been for so long, so single minded in its pursuit, he wasn't used to the conflicted feelings he was feeling about the situation.

He looked at her. He wondered what it was about her that drew him in so. Felt so meaningful, so fast and furiously. She was beautiful to be sure, and powerful. But she had a light about her that did not match his darkness. Was it the light that drew him in? For her, he thought, he would be lighter, would be a better man.

But does a better man destroy a marriage? To the one boy he'd ever cared about. Hook felt frustrated, angry and hurt, which was ridiculous of course, but there anyways, pulsing through him. He deserved this, he thought, this cruelty of fates, for losing the light and succumbing to revenge, to darkness.

_"Are we enemies in this future love?"_

_"No, never, but sometimes we have been on separate sides"_

_"Hence the multiple violent acts against my person?"_

_"Hmm...you do have a love affair with falling own on the floor..."_

Then out of nowhere it just slipped out.

_""Do you love him?"_

_"Yes"_

_"What is he like now?" _Hook asked, of course thinking she meant Baelfire.

"_Stubborn, often inappropriate, impulsive, naughty..."_

_"Sounds like true love" _Hook said, meaning it sarcastically wondering why Bae sounded so different.

_"Yes, it is" _and the certainty in her words felt like a stab to his belly. He wanted to mock such a concept, to fell contempt for such a thing...but instead he just felt intense sadness that his choices had led him away from such a gift.

_"He is also brave, a hero, he is the rock that steadies and supports me. We are both so much better for having each other..." _Her eyes misted and she stared off at the wall. Hook took a big gulping breath to try to steady himself, and the envy he felt at such a thing, and the strange hope that he felt at the thought that such a thing was still out there.

EMMA

_"He is also brave, a hero, he is the rock that steadies and supports me. We are both so much better for having each other..."_

Emma missed Killian. It was so weird, having an earlier version of himself here but not really him. She was a fool to trust Hook, and she wondered why she even was bringing him along, as the man was going to be as much of a hindrance as a help. A distraction. But, if Emma was honest to herself, an almost Killian was better than none at all, and she had come so far in the last few years, was confident in her ability to do this alone, but no longer wanted to.

She didn't want to be alone anymore.

Deep down he was still Killian.

It hurt to see him this way, through new eyes. Before, the first time, Emma had her own issues her own walls, and missed she feared a great deal of his pain.

Now without her own walls, with the confidence that he had helped instil in her, she was so much more conscious of his wounds. Caught between the man he was and the man he wanted to be. She worried it was cruel to talk to him about himself without him understandingthe context, but was also afraid to deal with him if he did.

So she continued on, and comforted herself that he would soon forget, forever what had occurred. She would maintain a better emotional and physical distance.

Until she looked into his eyes and saw so much at play there, so raw, so powerful and without thinking, undid all the promises that she made to herself just seconds before and reached up and stroked his face in comfort.

Hook jumped back as if she had shot him, and her hand tingled at the contact. They stared at each other, the pirate breathing a little harder somehow, Hook shuffling closer and then back in indecision.

"_I could love you"_ He thought to himself pained

"_I will love you"_ She promised him silently,

"_Hook, I..."_

"_Emma, I.."_

Emma shook her head, to clear it to break what ever.. this. was. and walked towards the door.

_"Enough of this, lead me to Cora's spell room"_

_"I am not drinking that potion love"_

_"You are drinking that potion Hook if I have to handcuff you and force it down your throat"_

He lead the way again, much as before, in silence and Emma worried about how she was ever going to convince him to drink that damn potion. And how painful it would be to know he had to regress.


	6. Chapter 6

Emma and Hook made their way to the spell chamber unnoticed by guards, and Emma went to work trying to make a memory potion, while Hook sat at a desk studying the maps that the Cora had and trying to consolidate them into one new map with one sole purpose, to find the white rabbits home.

He deliberately made in undecipherable to anyone but himself, part out of habit as a pirate, part to ensure that Emma had no choice but to take him along on the journey. He felt steadier at having a task to fulfill, a minor distraction from her presence. She was struggling with the portion, and finding ingredients and had been cursing up a storm over on her side. She would make a hell of a pirate with a mouth like that, he thought, admiring the creative outbursts of language.

He tried not to look at the metal box in which the blue mushroom was held, securely and safely and even added a few "locations" in which the blue mushroom might be on his map. Finding the white rabbit was going to likely be quick and easy, the Queen having clearly known his home and location on her own records, and Emma appeared to be make some success in her portion. Holding back the blue mushroom was necessary to keep her here with him.

He didn't want to let her go without a fight.

_"How is it going over there pirate?" _Emma questioned, holding up a potion triumphantly. "_I think I got it this time"_

_"How will you know for sure?"_

_"Come taste it?"_

"_I am a pirate not an idiot darling"_

"_We can test it on a guard, so I will make three batches"_

"_Might as well save time and only make two"_

"_Because no need for the guard and you will try it first?" _

"_Or, you know, I can just not drink it at all and come along?" _

Hook smiled at her but the smile did not reach his eyes. She was going to force that potion down his throat somehow, and he was not very confident in his ability, if she was properly motivated to best her. She was bloody marvelous, but also dangerous. Her eyes glinted at him of the challenge and he felt like he could see the wheels turning in her head as she contemplated how to get him to consume it when the time was right. Luckily she would keep him around until she found the blue mushroom, which if he had his way would be never...

EMMA

Emma was flush with what she was pretty sure was success on the potion, the colour, thickness and smell all being right... finally and contemplating the best way to ensures Hooks cooperation when she saw his eyes flick, ever so quickly to a small metal box betraying him.

Hmm...

"_What's in the box Hook?" _Emma asked advancing towards the item. Hook was quicker beating her to it. And betraying himself and the importance of the item even more with the quick flash of panic that danced across his face and the speed of which he beat her to the item.

"_What's in the box Hook?" _Emma repeated, but this time angrier. Possibilities danced through her head, with one glaring obvious item.

"_Give me the box Hook" _Emma demanded holding out her hand.

Hook handed her the box and Emma almost laughed at the fake innocent look he tried to plaster across his face. She wasn't the least bit surprised when she opened it and there was nothing at all inside. She wanted to strangle her pirate.

"_Give me the blue mushroom Hook?" _Emma said, guessing at the missing contents.

_"Love, the box is empty...":_

_"Do you think this is the first time I have seen your disappearing act?" _

_"I already lost a magic bean to you once with that slight of hand of yours pirate" _Emma glared at him, her hand extended.

_"I found something you need, I will give it to you but what are you going to trade me for it?"_ Hook queried, taping his finger to his lips suggestively.

Emma blinked in shock, but then smiled at him, her best full on smile. "_As you wish"_ She purred and all inhabitations about upsetting the future version of himself went out the window and she reached in, as she had done in the past and kissed him.

Sparks flew, as they always seemed to do, and she buried her hands into his hair and allowed herself to really get into it. She loved him, any version of him, really Past!Hook was still Killian, Killian was still in part the past version of himself. Although he lacked their shared journey, their history, it was still him.

He moaned, somewhere low and deep, and pressed himself as physically close as he could to her. He kissed her passionately, but also carefully, softly, as if she was somehow fragile. She felt the heat of his body radiate into hers and pulled her fingers out of his hair to caress the exposed chest hair. She slid her hands, out of habit without thinking up his shirt and softly stroked his stomach.

And as quickly as it started, it was over and they were separated by a foot, Hook breathing fairly heavily, staring at her with a mixture of lust and something akin to fear.

_"Bloody Hell" _He cursed, but then moved towards her again, but this time, Emma took a step back.

"_If that was somehow supposed to penalize me for stealing the mushroom to keep you here love, I think you just encouraged rather than dissuaded me. _

Emma extended her hand out for the mushroom and tried to pull her body under control.

He handed her the blue mushroom as her prize and Emma carefully put the mushroom in the box. What Emma did not see was him pocketing one of the discarded potions to change out with his later.


	7. Chapter 7

**HOOK**

He wondered what the hell the wrong potion she was carrying would do to him, being a cast off and all, and images of him turning into a frog or shrinking or something else equally dramatic danced through his head, but he found he was willing to take that risk, and remember so he could go after her, far more than forgetting.

Nothing seemed as important to him as simply not forgetting.

He realized suddenly that since meeting her he had barely cared about the crocodile, his revenge. How could something that sustained his very being, his very sense of purpose simply disappear so fast and furious at the appearance of one blond, married woman. He comforted himself that if the potion did anything really bad to him, she would likely fix it for him. Then shove the memory loss potion down his throat. Sigh.

He needed information as to where she was going to have any chance of following her. As they walked through the castle, her hands behind her back acting like his prisoner again he decided to grill her for information.

_"So where ARE you from, love, the enchanted forest? " _

The blond sighed._"I was born there but I grew up on a different realm" "I need to get back to the future"_

_"The future? Where is this time's version of you then?"_

_"A twinkle in my father's eye if I have the timeline right, but who knows, it is all very complicated" _

Hook took this all in, realizing that following her would be far more difficult than he initially contemplated given that time travel was supposed to be impossible and all. He longed for more information about her.

"_Tell me a secret, love?"_

She laughed at that as they continued to make their way through the castle.

"_You first pirate, if you want to play this game" "And make it good, as we were in the cave of echos once and I already heard your so called darkest secret..."_

Hook thought about that for a minute, wondering what secret he would tell if he was forced into that situation right now.

"_Revenge was an end, not a beginning, and I find myself less and less concerned about the end and more concerned about the beginning." _Hook surprised himself at the words, said deeply, fiercely. He no longer craved vengeance, he thought but wanted to try again, to start anew. He stared at Emma, who had stopped walking and was looking at him, her eyes sparkling, seemingly moist, a half smile on her face.

_"Good" _She said simply. After a long pause she added "_I think I liked the other one more though" _

_'What was that?"_

She laughed. "_My parents were present, and Neal, who you know as Baelfire, and I think it went something like I kissed Emma..."_

Hook scratched his head confused. "_How was THAT my darkest secret?" _He asked, pleased despite himself that at least in this future he seemed to be with her a lot, and apparently kissing her, husband be damned.

**EMMA**

She let the words she did not say to him out loud play by memory again through her head "_ I never thought I would be capable of letting go of my first love, my Milah, to believe that I could find someone else until I met you."_

She was at such a different place right now, so well, healed inside by her parents, Henry and of course Killian's love for her that such a thing said now would feel so different. Then, then she had been so many emotions at once. Then it had all been so much harder to believe, to let someone in...

_" I used to be an orphan" _Emma decided on as her secret. _"I used to be alone, with no one that cared for me." " A lost little girl wondering why no one loved her..." _She paused and an image of her parents flashed through her head with such vibrancy that just her memory of their love warmed her body.

Hook stared at her.

_"I spent a lot of time in Neverland, love and I know the look of someone who has been left unloved too long, abandoned in their eyes, and you don't have that"_

Emma smiled at him, a small sly one.

_"But my secret is I used to. Then I found my home. I did not change overnight, and sometimes I would take a step forward and then two steps back. I pushed people away, I got scared, I tried to run. But in the end of it all, I found my home, my family and they are all everything to me. I need to get back to them Hook. I need to go home."_

They had continued walking through the castle as they talked, together, in sync not having to communicate about that. They were now exiting the castle and it was almost nightfall, the sky a strange pinkish purple with streaks in it that Emma could not decide if it was foreboding or beautiful. Hook seemed to be silently contemplating that and they moved together and Emma marvelled how they always, instantly seemed to be a team. He deserved to know if he was helping her, what she was needing to protect.

_"You need to drink the potion Hook and forget because everything needs to happened how it originally happened so that the timeline is not changed." "For both of us, things need to play out as they did, otherwise the future is at risk"_

_"I know that love" _

But Emma still could see that the stubborn set of his jaw that he simply didn't care about the risk. He wanted to go after her, she knew and was frustrated and at the same time of course warmed by this. Sometimes she had wondered what had drawn them together so intensively even with all the boundaries that lay between them. She had always though it was a shared sense of history, the understanding that they had of each other, and the walls that they both had erected around themselves for protection.

But Emma no longer had those walls. They were long gone and they no longer had the connection that they brought. And yet they still had the connection. She felt it and he obviously did as well by his unwillingness already to part with her. Emma believed in their love, had for a while now, doubts long gone, I mean after true loves kiss how could there be doubt, but now Emma warmed and marvelled that any version of themselves would still have be drawn to each other. It was so much more than one element of themselves.

She still wasn't ready to tell him about who he would become. But she knew she would soon.

Until then, she would share a piece of herself with him. As they stumbled through the forest towards what Hook claimed was the white rabbits home, and a place to stay the night in the interim, she started

_"Would you like to hear a story Hook?" _

_"Is it about a dashing pirate?" _

_"No, it is about two people I love deeply, a Sheppard prince and a bandit princess." _

_"Once upon a time..." _she began and she told him of her parents story, leaving out all the others now, as they made their way together through the forest.


	8. Chapter 8

d**Hook**

Hook lead them to an abandoned travelling wagon to stay for the night, its occupants abandoned somewhere into the recesses of Wonderland. He thought about the story she had shared with him of her parents, and was surprised to find himself a renewed sense of belief in the story that happy endings where still out there, even if only for the hero's and not the villains of the story. He also connected the story to Regina and Regina's curse. If they were the people that Regina was out for revenge against, that meant that somehow the whole plan fails or is broken as her story about their new child could not have happened if they were still cursed.

The moved around the small wagon as Hook made up and prepared the only bed in the place for sleeping

"_You have got to be kidding?" _She said her eyes widening when he patted it suggestively

_"I am assuming you are going to take the floor?, like a gentleman"_

_"I am always a gentleman_" Hook said staring at the hard wooden floor of the carriage, reluctantly sighing.

_"You can sleep up here, with me as long as you look but don't touch"_ Emma said

Hook immediately flopped down beside her, laughing as she gave them separate blankets to keep a further barrier between them. He has taken off his coat but other than that and their shoes they were both almost still completely dressed. He was so tired that really, as tempting as she was he doubted he would have the energy to do anything with the justice she deserved anyways.

Despite her original attempts at a barrier, she soon ended up half in his arms, her hair fanning around both of them on the makeshift bed.

Like the vision he had briefly, earlier in his room, he ran his fingers through her hair, soothingly not seductively

_"Tell me your secrets?" _The words were soft but almost desperate.

"_I have a son, as you know and his name is Henry" _She started

"_I was in prison when I had him, and I gave him up for adoption. I was only a teenager, and I wanted to give him his best chance..." "He found me years later on my 28 birthday and he was the one to first bring me home, to him, to my family"__"_

_Sorry love, but prison? Adoption? I thought you said Baelfire was the child's father?"_

_"He is, he left me and in fairness he did not know I was pregnant at the time. It scarred me quite deep that, like you losing Milah. I made my peace with it and him since, and he more than made it up to me when he died to tell us who the latest threat at the time was."_

Hook stiffened. His hand froze in her hair. Baelfire was dead? He felt deep sorrow suddenly for the lost of the boy he once knew. Then suddenly... who the hell is the husband?

He was about to demand an answer from her once and for all when a gentle snore began beside him. She looked so peaceful in her sleep, he didn't have the heart to wake her.

It would have to wait until the morning... but the sun would not set again without some answers. He continued to lie there, stroking her hair while she slept contemplating his mistakes and wondering how he could changed enough to maybe just deserve her.

**Emma**

Emma woke in Hook's arms, her body wrapped around his in her sleep in the same familiar way she had woken up for well over a year now. With her eyes still closed she stretched, enjoying the feel of their bodies rubbing together with the motion. What a strange dream she thought, burying her face in his neck and breathing in his smell as she felt him waken beneath her. Wonderland, such a ridiculous dream, she thought, flicking her tongue purposely across his neck and lightly nibbling.

For a brief second he responded with a huge pent up level of passion she had not felt for sometime, and she ran her hands down his body wondering all of a sudden why he was wearing so much clothes, and why she was wearing so much clothes, and wait is that ALL leather?

Her eyes popped open with shock the same time his did and they both pushed away in surprise at the same time, both of them landing with a loud thunk on opposite sides of the bed.

Emma was breathing heavily as she was suddenly hot hot hot everywhere and she cursed Killian from the future for his overly dramatic and totally unfair belief that this would somehow be cheating.

_"Bloody hell"_

_"God damn it"_

They both sat in silence on their half of the wagon, and the rush of emotions all so conflicting raced through Emma until finally the most inappropriate won. She just started to giggle. And her eyes watered with unshed tears.

Holy shit that brief moment had been...

Hook stood up and came around to where she sat, looking at her as if she had suddenly turned mad as he clearly struggled to get himself under control.

_"Sorry?" _She said unhelpfully breaking into another round of giggles.

She stood up and brushed herself off and began to busy herself in preparing to leave the wagon to start again on their journey. Her stomach gurgled as she was hungry and she tried to focus on that hunger rather than... well you know...

Hook still stood there heaving, glaring, wanting...

Emma was already half way out the door when he finally said

_"How the hell did that happen if you have a bloody husband love?"_

_"I can't believe you still have not figure that out" _She laughed at him _"I thought you were quicker than that pirate"_

"_Who the HELL is he?_ Hook roared this, far more furiously than intended.

Emma smiled back at him, her best most brilliant smile before bolting fast outside of the wagon.

_"Why Killian Jones of course" _


	9. Chapter 9

**HOOK**

_**"Killian Jones"**_

Hook hardly is one to be shocked speechless, let alone feel faint, but he had no choice but to grab at the wall to steady himself at the words that just came out of her mouth. He was glad she dashed out and was out of view to give him time to react to cope with such news.

So natural, so **right. **

So wrong, so **impossible. **

How is it possible he believed this, believed this so deeply so intently with one part of his being, the pesky part in his chest, while his mind worked so completely against it at the same time. You are a villain, the brain said. It is love, his heart cried.

Was this the happy ending he had wanted for himself, one that seemed so hopeless and out of reach when Liam and then Milah died? Or was it a lie, a trick on her part to get him to drink that goddamn potion and go back to a version of himself, only one day old that was not just darker, angrier, vengeful but somehow less.

Less loved.

Less deserving.

Less.

He felt so conflicted, so torn. The third main organ, located a little lower on his body, still aching from the brief but sizzling encounter this morning was voting with the organ in his chest, rather than his head on this one. _Never_ it cried had he wanted anyone so badly, so completely.

If he was a democracy two of his three parts would win out, but he was a pirate after all, and needed to proceed with caution. He couldn't allow himself to completely trust her when he knew she was determined to manipulate him into forgetting her at the end of this journey which was almost complete. There was also a disparity in her story he could not ignore.

But he couldn't shake the hope. The warmth through his body different then the warmth that had spread through earlier.

And when he finally gathered himself enough to step out of the wagon and into the sunlight, she stood a good distance a way from the wagon, looking at him openly with an emotion he had not seen on anyone's face for so long he could barely recognize it.

Love. Not lust which he was used to but love. Open and pure. Simple and unguarded.

The sun was hitting her from behind and she looked like an angel to him, as he saw her again, in the new light, her green eyes still sparkling with mischief at his reaction, so beautiful. So powerful. So..everything, just everything.

If I believed in god I would pray, pray for this to be true, he thought to himself.

And he found himself praying silently anyways. Not specifically to god, but silently, determinedly anyways, as they stood there silently waiting for the other to speak. He prayed on Emma Swan.

**EMMA**

He was shaken to the core, Emma knew, at the look on his face as he emerged from the wagon finally after her. He was only a minute behind her but it felt like forever with the anticipation and excitement of his reaction racing through her.

Instead he just stood there staring at her as she was something greater suddenly, and she allowed herself to think of all of their good times and her pure love for him show on her face.

He needed to be re-assured she knew. His wounds so fresh and without time to deal with it, he would naturally have his suspicions, his doubts at such as future, so different than the path he had been walking on just yesterday and would have to return to before all this was over.

The silence continued to stretch between them until finally he said

_"You specifically told me that your husband punched me out when you were kissing me once?"_

Emma was startled by how good his memory was when it came to her. Well, not really, it was a story about him kissing her so he was obviously listening intently.

"_Well yes, we fell through a time portal into the Enchanted Forest and we messed up my parents first meeting and we needed help from more than just Rumple to fix it, so you borrowed your own ship while I err, distracted an earlier version of yourself and I was doing that by kissing you and well, the other you, the more future you got jealous and you punched yourself out." _Emma sucked in a long breath after the run on explanation.

Hook was silent for a minute before finally saying.

_"That sounds like quite the tale, love. Rumple helping us, me punching myself out?" _Hook's eyebrows were raised in obvious disbelief at the story.

"_Well, rumple did almost strangle you to death first, then he helped us...' _She tried, unhelpfully.

_"Pardon me if I don't find that explanation instantly reassuring." _Emma knew Hook enough to know that Hook was thinking, thinking hard, to work it all out, to let go of the doubt she could tell was plaguing him.

"_Nor do I find your reluctance to enhance our more personal, knowledge of each other" ringing true I am the husband.." _He said deliberately racking her body up and down with his eyes so that the context could not be misunderstood.

Emma sighed. It sounds so silly.

_"I don't want to betray you"_

_"With myself?"_

_"You wouldn't approve"_

_"But here I am finding myself completely undisturbed by such a notion..."_

Emma sighed, as it was so hard to put into logic, into words.

_"You are looking forward to this future blind right now to anything but us. He is looking back, to a man that he is not proud of, to a part of himself , the darkness, the hopelessness he fought, fought hard to give up. He would feel that it was wrong because you don't deserve me."_

Hook cocked his head a little taking that in. Emma was surprised that he did not even look offended. There was a small but perceptible nod.

"_Is that how you feel, that I am unworthy, that I don't deserve you?"_ Emma thought he sounded a bit hurt but accepting of such a thing, not challenging.

She paused, staring at him, in his full Hook outfit and glory, seeing the pain and the darkness that had long been missing on Killian in the future. Finally she responded.

"_No, I love you, anytime, any version of you." "You brought me home."_

_"Now help bring me home again."_


	10. Chapter 10

**HOOK**

Somehow, without speaking, they had decided to resume the journey and began trekking through the forest to the location of the white rabbits house. It was only 3/4 of an hour away now that Hook decided not to take the indirect route he had originally planned and cursed himself for moving her faster away from himself.

He comforted himself with the knowledge that even with the white rabbit found they would still have to get back to the castle and get the potion down both Cora's and his own throat. Cora would be awake now in that cage and he could not even imagine yet how to get her to drink it.

But he had faith she would find a way. She was determined. As much as he was not quite sure he believed her, he believed IN her.

The walk in silence was uncomfortable for him, with the light banter that had been flowing between them and the story she had shared of her family yesterday. Yet he could not bring himself to speak, in part as he had no idea what to say. He was a jumbled of emotions he struggled to deal with. He knew only a desire for revenge for so long, and was so single minded in this pursuit he felt particularly unprepared to cope with the overwhelming rush of other feelings that screamed through him.

So he said nothing.

He wondered at her story. He continued to struggle with the components of it that seemed false, like the time travelling him hitting himself portion, it seemed like something out of a bad fiction story ;) but also realized that she was time travelling apparently right now and he had simply accepted that, and he certainly could see him not happy with this version of himself if he became something better.

He often wondered what Liam would have thought of him this way, and knew he would not have approved. He had become selfish, cold and often cruel. So he wasn't surprised that a future version of himself wasn't pleased, since if he was honest about it, he already disapproved of himself. He just had nothing else to live for but his revenge. Until her.

He wondered at her silence. Was she plotting the lie... or just giving him space to sort it all out?

Finally he could take it no more.

"_I suppose you already know all my stories then?"_

_"Mostly, but you have been stubbornly quiet about your childhood Hook"_

Hook did not doubt the truthfulness in that statement, his childhood was never a topic of conversation he would willingly have, or has had with anyone, Milah included.

But he was on borrowed time with her, and would have to let her go to the future and forgetfulness soon, and might as well share with her when he would have the benefit of not remembering. He wished he had the luxury of forgetting his childhood, the painful bits that shaped him. Orphaned by his parents, not by death but by their deliberate and conscious choice. And not as a baby, but as a child with all the wounds and vulnerabilities that could cause.

So as they completed the journey to the white rabbits, it poured out of him. He didn't soften it or justify it. He told the dirty bits with the few good, the few good almost always involving Liam.

He was shocked suddenly when they were at the rabbits home, the passage of time flying by with the story and only then noticed that she had not spoken at all, marks streaking her face where some tears had fallen. She hugged him suddenly, tightly and he gave into it, yielding and allowed her to comfort him.

**EMMA**

Emma was always surprised when she hit the point in thinking that it was not physically or emotionally possible to love someone more then something would transpire between them to prove that was untrue. He would find a way to dig into her heart more firmly, more deeply. This was one of the moments and having finally heard a story she had never before asked to hear and knew he would never deliberately volunteer she only further was amazed at his capacity to love when life had brought him so little love in return.

She composed herself and knocked on the white rabbits door. Everything in this journey had been going so easily that Emma was waiting for the challenge, and she was almost shocked when just like that the door opened and he revealed himself to be home, that easily.

_"Can you bring me home rabbit?" _She asked tentatively.

"_Sure, but we need to leave right now, I have to go to another realm to see a friend, otherwise I will not be back for sometime, maybe a few weeks" _the rabbit said, and Emma once again thought how absolutely crazy her life was that she was discussing time travelling to another realm with a talking white rabbit with Captain Hook at her side.

_"Crap, can you wait until tomorrow, I have to go back to the palace and get Cora to drink a forgetting potion (and Hook she silently added) and was hoping you could meet me there and we could go immediately not to risk any new memories after..."_

_"I am sorry dear, but it is now or much much later..." _the rabbit said and Emma saw Hook smile happily at the thought of a stay of execution so to speak.

Emma looked at Hook intently, wondering if she could trust him with something so important as to get Cora and him to drink the memory potion, conflicted with the desire to go home as soon as possible. She felt saddened that she had to leave him behind which ridiculous ofcourse when he was also in the future waiting for her.

"_Can I trust you to drink the potion and find a way to get Cora to as well?" _Emma asked him concerned.

_"Ummmm...maybe? _ He said and he didn't even try to hide his own uncertainly, his continued reluctance. Although at least there was a maybe where it used to be a no.

Emma had an idea to get him to yes. Telling him was one thing, it was time to show him.

"_Do you have a mirror in your house rabbit?" _Emma asked.

"_Yes, why_?"

"_Can we just have five minutes alone inside and I will be ready to go_?"

The rabbit nodded his head reluctantly, but unwilling to argue with who he knew was the saviour. He was smart enough to know he may need her help one day and she was the type to repay such a debt.

Emma pulled Hook inside the small tight home in what appeared to be the hollow of a very large tree and quickly positioned them in front of the mirror.

"_This is the future you risk if you can not get the potion into yourself and Cora for me once I leave" _Emma said, focusing hard with her magic to open a imagine of back home as Regina had once shown her to do with Ariel. The mirror shimmered alive and a image of her family appeared. They could not see her and the sound was muted but her parents apartment came in as clear as if they were right in front of them with Killian dead centre.

From beside her, Emma noticed, Hook suddenly forgot to breathe.


	11. Chapter 11

**KILLIAN (STORYBROOKE)**

Killian sat at the stool in the Charmings kitchen as Snow buzzed around him, heaping a homemade breakfast on his plate. She had made a smiling face out of blueberries in his pancakes, and cut the fruit into cheesy little hearts in an attempt to cheer him up and Killian couldn't help but smile THEN rolling his eyes at her. He rubbed his hands, both hands on his face, exhausted at the lack of sleep the absence of his wife was causing.

He stared at the left hand. Not because it was there, he had had it back for sometime now and thought nothing of that, but rather at the plain but elegant wedding ring on it. Emma had until noon to find her way back here, otherwise he was going to start moving heaven and earth (or in this case harass Regina and Rumple) into finding a way to go after her.

He was so worried that the smell of the food made him feel nauseated not hungry but he appreciated the effort Snow was making on his behalf. She had restrained herself at least from giving any speeches this morning on hope or if you just believe enough or love conquers all, and he commended her on the restraint as he could see her ideals dancing about in that brain of hers just trying to escape.

He did not need the speech. He already believed in Emma. That was never the issue. She would find a way back. He just worried about her being alone, facing whatever she was facing by herself, and wished at least there was a way that he could have at least been there with her. A strange repressed memory, an image of them flashed through his brain, but he could not grasp it and just as suddenly it was gone.

He sighed heavily and Snow patted his hand in comfort and started cutting up his pancakes for him, like she would a child, as that would somehow seduce him into eating them.

**HOOK**

The first thing that Hook noticed was himself, the dashing rapscallion himself in the centre of the image. Except not so dashing, rather a little haggard, as if he had not slept or eaten and shockingly not so rapscallion either. Gone was his pirate clothes, replaced with clothing that was foreign to him, but carried a look of authority and respectability. The bulk of his jewellery was gone, other than the earring, his wedding band and a large brooch of some kind, a big silver star that he was shocked to barely read had the words Sherriff emblazoned on it. He was wearing some type of holster and had a weapon at his hip as well as handcuffs. The clothes might have been different but he knew what a Sheriff was.

_"Bloody Hell, I am a Sheriff"_

_"No, deputy sheriff" _

Hook shook his head, he wasn't even in charge? What the hell about his ship? Had he gone daft?

_"Who is the Sheriff?_

_"Me"_

He shook his at least understanding the connection now to his new employment. He stared back at the image, noticing next that he had two hands again, even the hook that was such a part of his identity and history was gone. He was almost offended at the change. The hook was part of him, and its absence made him feel disconnected to this other version of himself in front of him.

He looked away from the offending hand and watched the dark headed woman with the other version of himself. He knew instinctively it must be her mother, the Snow White from her story earlier. She clucked about the future version of himself, heaping food on the plate, and horrifyingly actually cutting his food for him. The woman was trying to mother him, for crying out loud. The whole thing seemed a little ridiculous to the motherless pirate that Hook was until he was undone and moved by an insignificant gesture. Snow had reached out with a warmth and familiarity, without awkwardness and simply patted his hand reassuringly. Such a small thing but it spoke of so much more.

As if they were family.

**KILLIAN (STORYBROOKE)**

David plopped down in the stool beside Killian, invading his space with various maps he had brought with him to breakfast. The text Killian had received from Emma before she disappeared was frustratingly short and to the point

"_Gone with rabbit to Wonderland to try to find the mushroom. Be back as soon as I can X0X0, Swan."_

While his imagination ran wild with every type of worse case scenario situation as possible, David had excitedly started planning the portal, just expecting Emma to return with the mushroom and the rebuilding of the kingdom that Snow and he had lost with the curses. He was far more interested in getting Killian to help him with the maps then worrying overly about his daughter.

"_Bloody hell Dave, can we get Emma back first AND then focus on the maps? _He grumbled. _"How are your guys not freaking out?"_

_"Well compared to sending your newborn infant daughter through a wardrobe to a strange new world alone, hoping that she will grow up, somehow find you and break a curse... " _Charming joked but stopped when Killian shot him a look that was anything other than amused.

_"Come on it's Emma. Compared to everything we have faced in the last few years a quick trip into Wonderland with her magic as protection, I predict she is back for lunch"_

David patted Killian on the shoulders in support.

"_Help me with my maps and if she is not back by noon, I will go to Rumple and you can go to Regina" _

Killian grumbled, but nodded his consent, starting to amend the Enchanted Forest maps from his previously memory when Henry came into the room. Killian stood up to greet him in a mutual hug.

_"What do we know about Wonderland? _Henry asked sharing Killian's concern a bit more than her parents.

_"I was there once, with Cora but to be honest I don't remember much.."_

**_Hook_**

Hook watched the exchanges between the parties, focusing less on the words and more at the interaction.

_"It is not just you and me" _Emma said softly from behind him.

_"Snow is the mother figure you never had. David is the brother you lost with Liam. Henry is the son to you that you looked for in his father Bae."_

_"This is the future we need to protect. It is so much more than US. It is all of us. My family is your family as well."_

_"That's my home. That will one day be your home..."_

She pulled the memory potion out of her pockets and handed them to him for safe keeping. Hook could not talk his emotions were so overwhelming.

_"Can I trust you to drink the memory potion Hook and get it into Cora as well_? She asked.

"_Yes_". And finally this time, it was the truth, and Hook knew that she could tell. It still occurred to him that this could all be a trick, her magic with a fake image, but it didn't even matter. Hook had been single minded in his pursuit for revenge and never did he want to kill Rumple a fraction that he wanted the home for himself that the people in the mirror, combined with this woman could create. It could be a 1% chance only and he would still now risk everything for it. For her. For all of them. For a happy ending.

_" I don't want to say goodbye, I would rather let you watch me say hello" _Emma said exiting the rabbits home. Hook understood what she meant and continued to watch the screen before him as she left with the rabbit from this time and appeared in the mirror with the rabbit in the room with the others.

He watched as the other version of himself growled at her, but half ran, stumbled to embrace her, a stream of banter flowing between the parties. He watched as Killian literally handcuffed his wife to himself and threatened to lose the key, watched as Emma, half starved by the journey and Killian suddenly with an appetite begin competing for the bacon on his breakfast plate.

Emma turned suddenly and blew a kiss to him in the direction she knew he was watching and he saw Killian's eyes widen when she whispered who it was to him.

And the mirror was just like that a mirror again. Tears where in Hook eyes, but not unhappy ones. He had expected when she left to feel a deep sense of loss, but instead he felt content at the knowledge what awaited.

Hook was now far closer to the Killian he would be in the future to the version of himself of only yesterday.

Because now he believed in love again. Family.

The darkness in him faded as Hook embraced the hope.

Now all he had to do was get an angry powerful sorceress who would want to rip his heart out to drink a magic potion at the same time he did. The idea of his potential death really suddenly bothered him a hell of a lot more now he had something to lose.

Hook scratched his head, desperate for an idea...


	12. Chapter 12

**HOOK**

As Hook made his way back to the castle, he replayed the image of the future over and over in his head, humbled by the wonder of such a gift a family would bring to him. He would have been happy with just one person to care for and be cared back by, but to know that there was more than even that waiting...

Well.

Could such a future even shine any better? What could that Killian even hope for if he really seemed to have the future Emma presented.

When an image of a small blond child suddenly entered his head with bright green eyes, he almost laughed out loud at such a thought from a person only a day or so ago was focused only on the darkness, on revenge. A child of his own with her, there was always still that. He wondered at such a thing.

He shook the image out of his head, trying desperately to focus on a plan to tackle Cora. He had destroyed one of the three potions (the one to have been the trial run) earlier so he only had the two and one shot at it. His stomach growled, which gave him and idea.

When he entered the chamber to face Cora, finally sometime later, he did so with two plates of food and two glasses of rum (and potion).

_"Hook, here you are crawling back for forgiveness I take it" _She snarled.

"_That pretty face of your buys you a lot, but not with me."_

_"I have brought a peace offering Cora" _Hook said, sitting down on the other side of the cell as he began to eat passing her food under the cell to her.

Cora stared at the food suspiciously and Hook sighed.

"_Its not poisoned"_ He said dramatically switching plates and eating from the plate that was to have been hers as well. She looked at the food longingly have had nothing since she got locked in a day before to sustain her other than her rage.

_"Let me out of this cell NOW pirate" _Cora growled, threatening.

_"I have every intention of doing so my dear, once we are done eating and drinking and you have had a chance to hear me out and calm down..."_

_"You think a little food will save you Hook?" _Cora said menacingly

"_I think a full belly and a nice glass of rum will help you forget you are angry..." _

"_I don't do rum_" Cora said. Hook continued to eat casually, still keeping the drinks at a distance until the timing was right. He had deliberately chosen very very salty food which would hopefully help her overcome any aversion to the rum.

Cora angrily began eating the section that Hook had already eaten bits of, remaining cautious and well, furious. Hook was glad that the cell was enchanted so her magic could not penetrate to him.

"_Where's your magical side kick" _

_"Gone my dear back to the world in which she came"_

_"And you think that I am just going to forgive you for switching sides..."_

_"In fairness dear, she wasn't just anyone but instead she is my wife, from a future in which I am apparently a two handed hero/sheriff, and my true love." _He said it as sarcastically as possible as his heart beat frantically at the truth of the words and smiled when Cora, rightfully snorted her disbelief at such as tale.

_" Did she really tell you such a story?" _Cora questioned. "_what about your revenge?"_

_"Why Rumple and I are family now of course, so if not quite friends at least now allies." Apparently all is forgiven_..." He smiled and let his eyes dance at the joke, of course for him the joke being that this was all crazy enough, true.

Cora was now eating in earnest having relaxed at the silly tale . Hook could tell she believed him, if only it was too ridiculous to make up.

_"Hmm and what did you say to all of that?" _

_"Well, its a long story, but to make it quick, here I am, hoping we can move on to our revenge and get out of here."_

Cora looked at him intently right in the eyes and Hook felt that she was preparing herself to see into his soul. She was good with knowing a lie when she paid attention carefully and he prayed that the next question out of his mouth was one that he could answer honestly.

"_Are you telling me that you just want us to forget her?_

_"Exactly". I want us both to forget she ever existed". _Hook reached forwarded with that, moving the rum glasses into reach.

Cora, although calming considerably eyed the glasses suspiciously.

_"What is in my drink Hook?" _she questioned, low and dangerously watching again for any tell.

_"They are the exact same thing Cora" "But if you do not trust me, I will turn my back and you can pick whichever one you wish and we will drink them the exact same time." _

Cora hesitated but the salt of the food and the day without a drink won her over. Hook turned his back as promised and the grabbed the remaining drink near the cell bars. Staring at her in challenge, they drank the rum at the exact same time...the last image in his head was of green eyes and golden hair and a promise for tomorrow.

...

**HOOK**

Hook blinked to find himself outside of a cell, rum glass in hand, Cora on the inside looking equally as shocked.

"_Bloody hell what are you doing in there_" Hook said using the keys in his possession to quickly let her out.

"_There is no time to muck about, I have a crocodile to slay" _

Cora looked more startled then angry about the situation almost unwilling to admit she had no more idea than Hook what the hell had happened.

_"Do you know anything more than you are telling pirate? I could rip out your heart and see and crush it if you are lying.."_

Hook thrust his chest forward at Cora " _Do your worst" "Then I will at least be reunited with my Milah" _

_"So brave" _Cora smiled, accepting the truth of the statement,_ "Fine, I believe you, lets get out of here" "I have a daughter to see.."_

Hook shook his head in confusion at it all, and disregarded it. All he cared about was his revenge.

Revenge. It was all he had.

But sometimes when he dreamed, he would wake up lighter. Where he used to have nightmares and wake up in a cold, damp sweat, reliving Milah's or sometimes Liam's death, was now replaced with a warmth, a brightness, a flash of yellow that he could not quite place but he believed to be the sun. Mossy green, just a colour, no real reference, that reminded him of the sea in the shallow parts of the Caribbean. No details just a deep feeling of happiness, or one even more elusive, hope.

He would put on his Hook and shake it away. Let the despair in later.

But it was there.

And for him, those moments however brief made an impact, made a difference.

He didn't realize it then, but when he dreamed, he dreamed of home.


	13. Chapter 13

**Killian (Storybrooke)**

There were wrapped up together in the hammock on their balcony, with the view of the sea, their limbs so tangled together that they were almost one. It was a few weeks since Emma made her journey into Wonderland, and Killian stroked her hair as she dozed, utterly completely happy. Whole. He thought there was nothing in the word he could even want to wish for, and was startled suddenly by the image of a child, with golden hair and green eyes. It hit him in the gut, the wanting for it, and he worried silently about how to broach such a subject with her, desperate not to upset the peace that had settled in over them and Storybrooke, with the plans for the portal in full swing.

As if she read his mind, she looked at him suddenly, stroking his face.

"_I'm pregnant_" She announced her eyes shinning her delight, and his eyes misted as he gripped her in awe.

Then suddenly, a panicked thought appeared to shatter the moment

_"Wait a minute... is it mine, I mean, I know its mine, but I mean mine mine, not ..."_

Emma smacked him on principle (lightly)

"_You idiot, of course its yours"_

"_But mine mine?"_

Emma laughed, understanding he was worried with the timing that it might have been the earlier version of himself.

**"**_I __behaved myself in Wonderland, Killian however reluctantly"_ she added smiling

She wiggled her eyebrows

"_You were_ _devishly handsome after all..."_

_although I did technically sleep with him..." _Emma laughed at the look on Killians face.

_"Calm down you were a gentleman"_

_"And a hero", _she added thoughtfully,_ "even then." _

_"You got that potion down Cora's throat and your own somehow...for me. You deserved me even then Kiilian" _Emma stroked his face lovingly

Killian, still uncomfortable with praise buried his head into the crook of her neck, in her hair. Normally he would have dug his hand through it as well, but now his hand settled in it's new favorite spot, her belly, still flat, but Killian, with his overactive imagine felt like he could sense the child somehow growing within her...

More to herself than anything, Emma murmured "_I wonder how you got her to drink that potion..."_

He smiled, kissing her on the nose, cuddling back in, enjoying the breeze, the salt in the air, the smell of her hair against his nose... the everythingness of it all.

_He laughed " I forget"_

_PLEASE CHECK OUT SEQUEL " UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN... JUST POSTING... _


End file.
